9800gtx or Radeon HD 4850?

ati
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3921310&Sku=D10-4850

nvidia
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3747036&Sku=P450-9802

HD 4850 is better, but runs very hot (about 85-90C under load). If that's an issue with you, get the 9800GTX+.
Also, get the HD 4850 for much lesser from here.

I personally would get the 4850 because it's cheaper and a tad more powerful.
If you already have a sli motherboard then I'd go green so you'll have the option to get another 9800 later.

BTW: I found the 4850 even cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103060

The OP lives in Canada, so he can't buy from Newegg.

hmm so should i get like a crossfire motherboard

Wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd recommend an Intel chipset since they are x fire compatible... X38/48 perhaps.

hmm but realy is nvidia better or ati, i've use ati for all my life i wanna switch

Currently Nvidia does have the most powerful card available in the form of the GTX 280, but Ati's newest entries are a much better value!

If you can afford an extra $100 or so, I would deffinately recommend getting the 4870. If not, the 4850 represents the best bang for the buck on the market right now IMO.

oh i see what type of mobo and stuff would you reccomend i should get if im going to upgrade to an ati

if you did not read my previous here is my post on upgrading, with specs

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic107978.html

A good P45-based board like the ASUS P5Q will be best as far as price and performance goes.

Rage, can't you just change the heatsink fan on the 4850 and lower the temps? I remember people saying the default HSF that came with it wasn't really that good, but after they changed it to a after-market cooling it lowered the temps to something more reasonable. Also, if you're videocard is getting extreme amounts of heat you could get a PCI-slot cooling card ( I know it's newegg, but I'm just showing it ) and it could blow out the extra heat the videocard produces outside the case.

hmm what is the price for p5q any links?

Getting an after market cooler isn't needed. The reason these new cards get so hot is because the default fan speed is set really low, but can be remedied by creating/editing a profile(google: 4850 fan fix).

@TP, you can just ramp up the fan speed to 100% to deal with the heating problem as suggested above. The other reason I wouldn't recommend an HSF change is because it will void the warranty, besides there being a chance of killing the card if you don't attach the new HSF properly.

100% speed is super loud and deffinately over-kill. 50-60 will absolutely suffice and from what I've read will keep temps well under 70c even under heavy gaming loads. Also, as rage mentioned removing the original HSF may void the warranty depending on the mfr.

Ah... I kept the fan speed on 100% for my videocard ( 8800GTS ) and it started screeching after about 3 minutes, I looked and for some reason there was a thin piece of tape on the card's outside. It was very strange. :> The temps dropped a lot though, from 50c idle to about 44c and 57c load to 51c.

Check out this P5Q Pro. It's quite cheap for the features it provides and is an overall great board IMO.

Can you pick a third party better than Diamond at least.

...like Sapphire perhaps.

I don't see anything wrong with Diamond's products. They, along with Sapphire, HIS Hightech and Visiontek have some of the best Radeon cards out there.